The Leafs are over the cap, the Oilers hire stats guy Tyler Dellow, Alabama hates Vancouver, who makes the Flames and more in this week's Roundup.

In the roundup we go around the Nation Network and give you some of the best articles of the last couple weeks. Every once in a while it's good to know what other teams are doing, or maybe you find an interesting article you wouldn't have found otherwise.

I think the Dellow hiring for the Oil is another step in the right direction towards at least considering all the information available....fresh ideas are a nice change. We'll see (likely in a few years) if there is any impact from this hiring

Personally I think this should be a Monday Mailbag question. That ... or figuring out what the Winnipeg Jets have done to pi$$ off the entire continent of Africa.

I have a few theories on the Wyoming / Sens thing:

1) Perhaps an inordinate number of Wyomians (not sure that if that is an actual word) are of Swedish descent and think Daniel Alfredsson got jobbed by Murray and Melnyk.

2) Perhaps an inordinate number of Wyomians (I suppose I am committed, now) were shareholders in Biovail which Melnyk pumped and dumped and has now tucked the proceeds into some numbered account in the Barbados

3) Perhaps an inordinate number of Wyomians (has a nice ring to it) belong to a state militia and are bored with hating their own national capital of Washington D.C. and have decided to diversify to other nation's capitals.

4) Perhaps an inordinate number of Wyomians have actually met Eugene Melnyk.

Edit: I couldnt stand it and google has indicated the correct term is - unbelievably! - "Wyomingite".

Mark Fayne was 6th among Devil's defencemen for ice time per game last year. As a shutdown defenceman, he was 6th on the team in PK minutes per game.

Tavares was his most-common opponent 2 years ago, but the top opponents of almost every regular NHLer are almost always 1st liners and 1st pairing defencemen of a division rival. It is an artifact of the schedule, nothing more. (Almost every Oilers defenceman's top opponent this year was one of either either Perry-Getzlaf-Lindholm-Beauchemin, or the Vermette-Doan-Yandle-OEL).

Corsi numbers mean nothing for defencemen. Raw Corsi is a team stat; the NHL's top 10 guys were all on LAK, SJS, or CHI, and the bottom guys all on TOR, BUF, etc. Raw Corsi a team stat for defenders.

And for Relative Corsi, the NHL's Top 30 defencemen included Martin Marincin, Jeff Petry, and Anton Belov. I don't know what more you would ever need to know to put a nail into the coffin of using that stat to evaluate defenders.

If you want a good Fayne comparison for advanced stats, pull up the Vollman diagram for Chris Tanev. He played more minutes, more SH minutes, had more difficult opponents, more difficult zone starts than Fayne, and if you insist on using it he was also a positive Corsi. Tanev also put up his numbers in the Pacific Division, rather than the Metro. And he put up more points, is younger, his salary is only 56% of Fayne's, and he's still an RFA when that contract is up.

To be clear, I think that this was a GOOD signing by the Oilers. Thats kind of why its funny. He has a good value contract. Despite being a UFA and signing in Edmonton, I'd say he's only overpaid by about $500k, which is good value for a UFA. This is what you should expect from a veteran NHLer making 3-ish million as a UFA.

Its funny because as basically an older version of Chris Tanev, he IS a legit upgrade to the Oilers top-4, no matter where he slots in, and he DOES have a very realistic shot at anchoring the 1st pairing in Edmonton.

You might be an Oilers fan if... a $3-ish million defenceman from the Eastern Conference signs as a UFA for your team, and a top-pairing spot is his to lose.

Mark Fayne was 6th among Devil's defencemen for ice time per game last year. As a shutdown defenceman, he was 6th on the team in PK minutes per game.

Tavares was his most-common opponent 2 years ago, but the top opponents of almost every regular NHLer are almost always 1st liners and 1st pairing defencemen of a division rival. It is an artifact of the schedule, nothing more. (Almost every Oilers defenceman's top opponent this year was one of either either Perry-Getzlaf-Lindholm-Beauchemin, or the Vermette-Doan-Yandle-OEL).

Corsi numbers mean nothing for defencemen. Raw Corsi is a team stat; the NHL's top 10 guys were all on LAK, SJS, or CHI, and the bottom guys all on TOR, BUF, etc. Raw Corsi a team stat for defenders.

And for Relative Corsi, the NHL's Top 30 defencemen included Martin Marincin, Jeff Petry, and Anton Belov. I don't know what more you would ever need to know to put a nail into the coffin of using that stat to evaluate defenders.

If you want a good Fayne comparison for advanced stats, pull up the Vollman diagram for Chris Tanev. He played more minutes, more SH minutes, had more difficult opponents, more difficult zone starts than Fayne, and if you insist on using it he was also a positive Corsi. Tanev also put up his numbers in the Pacific Division, rather than the Metro. And he put up more points, is younger, his salary is only 56% of Fayne's, and he's still an RFA when that contract is up.

To be clear, I think that this was a GOOD signing by the Oilers. Thats kind of why its funny. He has a good value contract. Despite being a UFA and signing in Edmonton, I'd say he's only overpaid by about $500k, which is good value for a UFA. This is what you should expect from a veteran NHLer making 3-ish million as a UFA.

Its funny because as basically an older version of Chris Tanev, he IS a legit upgrade to the Oilers top-4, no matter where he slots in, and he DOES have a very realistic shot at anchoring the 1st pairing in Edmonton.

You might be an Oilers fan if... a $3-ish million defenceman from the Eastern Conference signs as a UFA for your team, and a top-pairing spot is his to lose.

Enjoy your weekend!

Average salary for an NHL player was $2.4 last year. Paying $3.6 for a big stay at home Dman that's 27 years old to play in Edmonton is fine, like you said.

Stay at home Dmen usually have a longer than average shelf life. In 2 years, with the inflation of contracts, I see it being a bargain.

I predict that salary inflation for middle-tier players is almost over.

Top NHL stars have always done the heavy lifting, and have been relatively underpaid for what they contribute. This got worse in the cap era. Guys like Lidstrom and Sakic who were making $10m+ before the lockout took massive pay cuts, despite contributing even more than they did before (because the Avs and Wings couldn't just buy superstar teams any more).

I think we'll see a reversal of that trend, as exemplified by the massive contracts given to Kane, Toews, Subban, etc, and the surprisingly small ones for support players like Stempniak, Roy, Brad Richards, etc. Star players will take up a bigger and bigger chunk of the cap, while the filler players get smaller and smaller deals.

Kassian is going to make your Coilers his b****. As I am sure Willie is going to lay the smack down on Dallas haha.

What has your superstar team done lately?

I'll predict another bottom five finish this season. How much do you want to bet they play Draisaitl this season haha.

the fearsome Kassian? seriously? the same guy who, when the Oilers played the Canucks again after the Kassian bonehead stick swinging incident, was challenged by Gazdic and declined? and please let us all know exactly what the "superstar" Canucks have done lately? (except get embarrassed at home in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals!)

Gizdic fights with a visor... of course oiler supporters pretend this isnt a problem but everyone knows it is. what a loser and a coward... kinda fitting, the team he is on.

that's the lame excuse every rival team's fans make....like Gazdic would never fight if he didn't wear the thing....lame like McGratton and the Lames, right Jeff? it's going to be fun watching the Lames lose this season and be in the hunt for McDavid....and just lose out by a pick or two. doesn't matter, McDavid likely doesn't want to play in Calgary anyways.